Changes
by Longing for Oblivion
Summary: After Elle left the BAU she decided to head back to NYC and starts working with Flack, Angell and the CSIs. Prequel to my story "The Thing With Trust".
1. A new start

_**Discs.:**__ I don't own "Criminal Minds" and "CSI NY" nor anything you recognize from either show!  
__**Summary:**__ After Elle left the BAU she decided to head back to NYC and starts working with Flack, Angell and the CSIs.  
__**Pairings:**__ Mac/Peyton, Elle/Flack, Flack/Angell  
__**Genres:**__ Drama, Suspense, Angst, Friendship, Romance, Hurt/Comfort  
__**Spoilers:**__ Criminal Minds season 1 and early season 2 (mostly stuff involving Elle having been shot and the aftermath), CSI NY season 2 finale and beginning of season 3_  
_**Warnings:**__ some language, also mentions violence and stuff that the show contains  
__**A/N:**__ So after having been stuck on this for ages I read through the already finished chapters and decided to take them down, give them a slight makeover and repost the story. I also took down my story "The Thing With Trust" to which this one is the prequel. I will repost it once this story is finished. Anyways, enjoy reading!_

* * *

**Changes**

_1. A new start_

Taking her shades off as she entered the apartment of the victim Elle couldn't help but smile in anticipation. God, she was damn eager to finally start working again after weeks of uncertainty concerning what she should do now that she had left the FBI.

It had taken quite a while before she had come up with the idea of heading back home to New York. After making this decision the rest had followed easily, she knew she wanted to continue working law-enforcement and after a couple of days of consideration she had chosen to apply for a job at the NYPD.

Today was her first day in the field and therefore she was in quite a good mood.

"If that isn't Elle Greenaway..." Flack stated as he saw her approaching.

Elle couldn't help but grin then she retorted,

"Who were you expecting?" Hearing Flack chuckle her grin widened for a moment before she became serious again,

"So, what do ya know so far 'bout the vic?"

"Well, he seems to be Doug Humphrey, however, so far we were not able to confirm that..."

"I thought this is his apartment?"

"Yeah, but he worked at home, he got his groceries brought here - apparently nobody ever saw this guy."

"You're kidding, right?" Elle asked in disbelief.

"Unfortunately not - we were unable to find any ID around here, and considering that the body is already quite decomposed I'm not sure if they can get his fingerprints. So all we can hope for is that we find a match to his DNA in some data base - otherwise we've got a problem."

By now they had reached the body and Elle frowned.

"Was he set on fire before or after he was killed?" She gave the ME a questioning glance.

The woman smiled and replied after a moment of thinking,

"I'm not sure yet. But the autopsy will hopefully shed some light on this." Peyton smiled at her and got back to examining the body once more for a while, before giving the okay to bring the corpse to the morgue.

As she had straightened up and removed her gloves Peyton stated,

"I assume you're Detective Elle Greenaway?" Seeing Elle nod she went on,

"I'm Dr Peyton Driscoll." They shook hands and a moment later Peyton announced,

"Well, I'm gonna leave now to get started with the autopsy."

Flack nodded and said,

"See you later, Peyton."

Watching the ME leave Elle didn't notice Stella walking up to them, so when she turned back around she was taken by total surprise by the other woman standing right next to her.

"Stella, that's Detective Elle Greenaway." Flack introduced, after they had shaken hands he added,

"Did you find anything of interest so far?"

"Not really... At least nothing that could lead us to a suspect."

"Well, that's actually not surprising." Elle spoke up, causing Flack and Stella to give her a questioning look,

"This crime scene displays a huge amount of organisation. The killer made sure to remove anything that could help identifying the victim, he also paid a lot of attention to not leave any traces behind. The killer even made sure to turn on the air-conditioning so it would take longer 'til the body would be found." She paused for a moment,

"Furthermore he set the victim on fire which can mean a couple of things. First possibility is that this was something personal and burning the body was an attempt of concealing any personal ties between the killer and the victim. - What would be great for us considering that it would mean that the murderer probably won't kill again." Elle sighed,

"But it could also be a sociopathic serial killer - or even worse someone suffering from severe paranoia..."

"Why would it be worse to deal with a paranoid person than a serial killer?" Flack wanted to know.

Elle took a deep breath and explained,

"A sociopath acts at most times rational, he plans everything in detail and has always at least a plan B if not even a plan C for the eventuality that something goes off script. But a killer with mental issues is unpredictable - worst case scenario? A paranoid schizophrenic, or delusional psychotic thinking that the entire world is against him, seeing in every person he meets a major threat to his life, his freedom, whatever..."

"Okay, I got it. So, let's hope that this was just something personal." Flack stated, causing Elle to frown.

A moment later she headed to the bathroom. Somehow she doubted that this crime had been something personal.

A sigh escaped her as she entered the small room and a brunette CSI looked up at her. God, she hated first days, all this introduction crap was so incredibly annoying in her opinion.

"You must be Elle Greenaway." The CSI stated as she straightened up and stretched out her hand,

"I'm Lindsay Monroe."

Elle put on a polite smile and shook the offered hand, then she stepped further into the room.

"Did you already check the cabinet over the sink?"

"Not yet." Lindsay replied.

"You mind if I take a look?"

"Not at all." Lindsay crouched down next to her kit and offered Elle a pair of gloves.

"Thanks."

After putting the gloves on she walked up to the sink and opened the cabinet. Taking a look at the items inside Elle couldn't help but sigh and mumbled,

"That's not good..."

"What is it?" Lindsay gave her a curious glance.

Elle grabbed the items that had caught her attention and showed them to the CSI, explaining,

"Haloperidol, as well as sedatives and sleeping pills." She paused,

"Somehow I start doubting that the burnt body is really Doug Humphrey."

"Why?" Flack's voice was heard and a moment later he appeared in the doorway.

Elle sighed and replied,

"You said this guy worked at home and nobody ever saw him?"

Flack nodded, unsure if he really wanted to know where this was going.

"If nobody ever saw him how was he able to upset someone enough to kill him? After all, if Humphrey really suffered from paranoid schizophrenia he won't have shared anything about himself with anyone." Elle paused for a few seconds, then she wanted to know,

"By the way, what was he actually doing for a living?"

"Something with computers I assume." Flack shrugged.

Elle nodded and left the bathroom. Entering the living-room she took a close look around and catching sight of the laptop on the coffee-table Elle headed over to Stella.

When she had reached her Elle wanted to know,

"Are you going to take the laptop to the lab as well?"

"Yeah. After all, it might be able to tell us something about who could have had a motive to do this." Saying these last words Stella looked at the burnt couch where the body had been lying.

Elle just nodded in response.

_An hour later:_

"So, how's your first day been so far?" Angell wanted to know as she and Elle waited for their coffee at Starbucks.

"It's okay. However, I'm looking forward to having met everyone, I've got enough of shaking hands."

"But wasn't that part of working with the BAU, introducing yourself to other agents or cops when starting to work on a new case?"

"Exactly. And it's the part I hated the most. I mean besides the gruesome details of many of the cases." Elle replied, smirking at her friend.

"Well, you already know Lindsay and Stella as well as Peyton. Furthermore you know me and Flack, so the only ones you still have to meet are Danny and Hawkes, two more CSIs - though Hawkes used to be a ME - and of course Mac Taylor, the leader of the lab." Jess stated as she paid their coffees and smiled cheerfully,

"Anyways, I'm so glad that you're back in New York."

"Me too. I really missed this city." Elle couldn't help but grin as she saw the mock disappointed pout on Angell's face,

"And of course you, Jess." They both started chuckling as they stepped out of the Starbucks and headed in the direction of the crime lab.


	2. Trapped

**Changes**

_2. Trapped_

As she and Angell were heading over to the lab Elle couldn't help but reminisce about the time before she left New York, about her childhood - simply about all the things that had drawn her back to NYC.

After entering the lab the two friends parted, Elle heading to the break-room to talk with Lindsay and Stella, while Angell went to search for Mac.

It didn't take Elle long to find the two CSIs she had been searching for.

"Hey." Lindsay stated as she noticed Elle approaching.

"Hey. Do you already have some test results?" Elle asked, a genuine smile on her lips.

"Actually we do." Stella replied and handed her the first file.

Opening the file Elle realized that it was the autopsy report. Skimming it for the most important details she frowned.

"He was stabbed multiple times _**and **_got shot?"

"Yeah." Stella said,

"He was first stabbed in his arms, the first two stab-wounds were only superficial."

"Judging by the angle of the shot-wound it's a save assumption that he was shot with his own gun. I guess, when he saw his attacker approaching with the knife he lifted his arms in front of his face.." Elle started, mimicking the action,

"After he was cut into the arms he pulled his gun, they started fighting for it and a shot got fired by accident. He broke down and the attacker took his chance to stab him to death when he realized that the gunshot-wound wasn't lethal."

"Yeah, but why did he take the time to stab him another six times instead of simply shooting him?"

"By shooting his victim he would dissociate himself from his victim, his crime... But that wasn't the killer's intention - this extremely violent component of the crime makes quite clear that there was a lot of rage involved." Elle trailed off as she heard someone clapping and turned around.

"Amazing, Greenaway.." Flack stated, his eyes sparkling with sarcasm.

"Nice to see you, too, Flack." She smirked at the detective.

As Flack went to get himself some coffee and took a seat at the table Lindsay broke the silence while handing Elle the second file,

"You were right, the body we found wasn't Doug Humphrey."

"Then who was the guy?"

"An Agent Danny Anderson." She answered the question,

"And now get this - the guy worked for the NSA."

"How do you know that? After all, they tend to deny any connection between them and their agents - they are even worse than the CIA..."

"Well, we searched for a match to his DNA - first we didn't come up with anything. Nothing on CODIS, with Interpol it was the same and after checking the data base of the military we tried it with the data bases of government agencies - FBI, DEA, ATF... And suddenly the phone rang and Mac told us to stop looking and to get to his office." Lindsay paused for a moment, taking a sip of coffee.

"What happened?" Flack wanted to know, curiosity written in huge letters all over his face.

"Apparently Anderson's boss found out that he was dead and we work on the case, so he called Mac to confirm his identity - probably to avoid that we keep searching." Lindsay shrugged.

"So, what about Doug Humphrey? Was he an alias of Anderson? A contact person in a case - a target?"

"We don't know. After all, that's your job, isn't it?" Stella said and grinned.

In that moment Danny walked into the room and stated,

"Hey, Mac wants all of us to come to the conference-room." Looking at Elle and Flack he added,

"You two as well."

_Conference-room:_

"What's up?" Stella wanted to know as they all entered the room and took a seat.

"Well, apparently our cases are related and therefore I assume it would be better to stop looking at them as separate murders." Mac replied.

"Where's Jess?" Flack asked after noticing that his colleague wasn't in the room with them.

"I asked her to check something for me." Came the semi-cryptic response.

"So, what's the link?" Lindsay spoke up.

Mac cleared his throat and started,

"Doug Humphrey. The victim in our case was a well-known therapist. When we checked the names of his patients we also found a D. Humphrey - and Dr Montgomery was also the one who prescribed Humphrey the Haloperidol."

"Do you have Montgomery's notes on Humphrey?" Elle wanted to know.

"Nope. He took the file with him." Mac said and gave her a questioning look as he saw her frown,

"I assume you're the new Detective?" Seeing her nod he added,

"Is there a problem?"

Elle took a deep breath before saying, carefully choosing her words,

"Actually there is indeed a quite big problem."

Elle could see Flack roll his eyes, but she ignored it - it wasn't her style to mince matters just 'cause she was the new one. For Christ's sake she had always spoken her mind, even while working with the BAU so she would sure as hell not gonna start keepin' her mouth shut now.

"Go on." Mac stated when she didn't continue after a moment.

"Doug Humphrey is not just your average paranoid schizophrenic. After limiting his contact to other people to the least for years he's now determined to erase any trace of himself. He killed his therapist and stole the file on himself. Humphrey had even the guts to kill an agent of the NSA." Elle paused for a moment,

"Maybe he stopped taking his meds, maybe he felt threatened by Anderson - but whatever the stressor was, he's still clear enough in his head to eliminate most evidence against him. Starting by stealing his therapist's notes up to setting Anderson's body on fire. And the fact that barely anyone knows his face is making it that much worse, considering that he won't have any trouble to hide in a city as huge as New York - with millions more of potential victims."

_**~oOo~**_

Re-entering the lab Angell sighed, still wondering why Mac had - of all people - asked her to get these things.

Damn, she was totally out of breath and she could feel the sweat running over her face. He better had a good explanation for this - and in case that it had just been one of his damn experiments Mac was sure as hell treading on extremely thin ice.

If she won't have been so deeply lost in her thoughts concerning the favor Mac had asked her for, or if she hadn't been so goddamn tired because certain problems were recently keeping her awake almost all night - for Christ's sake if she hadn't been so distracted and had paid more attention to her surroundings things would have surely turned out differently.

But there was simply too much on her mind, and therefore she didn't notice that the guy behind her was carrying a gun, didn't notice that the metal detector peeped for another time just a moment after she had stepped through it, nor did she hear the security guard telling the man to stop and empty his pockets.

She didn't notice _**any **_of those things - but then again about the being with her thoughts not even in the same universe as the here and now kinda thing... She simply didn't see any of it coming 'til it was way too late for any counter-action by her.

It took Angell to hear a shot being fired just about one and a half feet away from her to realize what was going on. She swirled around, reaching for her gun, but before she was able to draw it out of its holster the guy hit her hard into her face.

A moment later he grabbed her and she felt the muzzle of his gun pressing against her temple as he retreated to the elevator, using her as a human-shield. Pulling her into the elevator he hit the button for the fifth floor, but short after the carrier started moving he stopped it again.


	3. Prevention of escalation

**Changes**

_3. Prevention of escalation_

As his cell phone rang Mac couldn't help but frown when he checked the caller's ID.

"Taylor." He answered the call and listened for a moment,

"What?! How could that happen?" His facial expression darkened.

A moment later he sighed and said,

"Thanks."

After hanging up he looked at his colleagues and Flack and Elle, who were all looking at him with curiosity.

Taking a deep breath Mac answered the unspoken question,

"A guy just shot one of the security guards and took Angell as hostage on the elevator."

"Do they know who the guy is?" Flack asked an angry expression on his face.

"No, but I'll take a wild guess and say it's Doug Humphrey." Mac replied.

Sure it wasn't like him to jump to conclusions, but who else could it be? After all, it would be such a huge coincidence if there was someone else who would currently have an interest and most of all the nerve to walk into the building with a gun, kill a security guard and take a cop as hostage.

_Fifteen minutes later:_

After the HRT had arrived and they had all put on bulletproof vests they were now standing in front of the elevator and discussed their options. Well, "they" were the leader of the HRT team plus three of his agents, Mac, Elle and Flack.

"So, what's your plan?" Mac wanted to know.

"We're gonna proceed straight to the book - we're gonna give him a moment, if he doesn't surrender we gonna go in there and take him down before he has time to kill another person."

"That's exactly the wrong way!" Elle protested.

"What is it this time Greenaway?" Flack asked annoyance etched to his voice,

"After all, standard procedures exist for a reason - they are most efficient, right?" He gave the HRT agents a questioning look, causing them to nod simultaneously.

"Precisely." The team leader agreed.

"Yeah, in normal cases. But when you're dealing with a suspect who has severe mental issues the handbook is nothing but worthless BS." Elle retorted, staring both Flack as well as Agent Sullivan down.

"And what makes you say that?" Sullivan spoke up.

"Standard procedures don't work with delusional suspects - they only provoke them further." Elle said, a calm expression on her face, even though she was quite upset,

"If you try to get into the carrier of the elevator he's gonna kill Detective Angell."

Before anyone else was able to say something Mac wanted to know,

"What would you suggest?"

Taking a look at the footage of the surveillance camera of the elevator Elle stated,

"I suggest that we try to get him to talk. Mainly 'cause that will give us time to figure out what he actually thinks is going on here. And when we figured that out we have to play along to his delusions - make him feel safe, give him the impression that we're on his side. That way it's most likely that he gives himself up and nobody else gets killed."

"With all due respect, _**Detective**_ - but what makes you so sure of that?" Sullivan gave her a look, that showed pretty clearly that he doubted her judgement and didn't like her plan.

"Well, let's start with the fact that I studied psychology, continue with my work with the BAU before I left the FBI and last but utmost I was in pretty much the same situation not that long ago - I know what I'm talking about! And furthermore Jessica Angell is one of my best friends, we grew up together, if I wasn't sure about this I won't suggest it!" She glared for a moment at Sullivan and Flack, before settling for focusing her attention on Mac.

"If you're such a good profiler then why don't ya go back to your beloved BAU?!" Flack stated, glaring back at her.

"First of all I won't give you that satisfaction and second flying all around the country to catch criminals is overrated, especially when you're even called back to work when you're officially on vacation. Did that answer your question? I for my part would suggest we should focus on the current situation instead of on your obvious problems with me."

For a moment Flack just stared angrily at her, clenching is hands to fists, then he turned around and left.

Sullivan sighed then he looked at Mac and told him,

"Well, you're in charge here so it's your call. How do you wanna proceed?"

"I honestly think that Detective Greenaway is right, and if we can't make Humphrey give himself up we can still do it your way." Mac replied after a moment of thinking.

"Did you already take a look at Humphrey's laptop?" Elle broke the silence after a few minutes.

"Well, our techs are still working on it."

Elle nodded, suddenly missing Garcia's computer skills.

"Mind if I talk with them?"

"Not at all."

Hearing that Elle headed off.

_**~oOo~**_

Angell couldn't help but simply stare at the man in front of her.

"Hand me your gun." He demanded.

After a moment of hesitation she did what she had been told and gave him a questioning glance.

"Are you gonna tell me who you are - or what you want?"

"It doesn't matter at the moment."

"Well, it matters to me. After all, you took me as hostage." Angell said in a calm voice.

"All I can tell you is that I have no intention to kill you - I think that's all you need to know."

"Why?" A curious expression crossed her face.

"What 'why'?"

"Why won't you kill me? I mean, you killed that security guard, so why should I believe you won't kill me as well?"

"I need you that's why you can be sure to stay alive - and from now on you're gonna remain quiet unless I tell you to speak."

Angell only nodded and sat down on the floor of the elevator. After a moment of thinking she spoke up once more,

"I know you said I should stay quiet, but you should better talk with the responsible officer or they try to get in here. I don't want to get in the middle of that and to be honest something tells me you don't want that either."

This time it was his turn to stare at her, but he simply remained silent.

_**~oOo~**_

"Hey, how is it going with the laptop?" Elle asked walking up to Adam.

He looked up, a frown on his face.

"Before I answer that question you're first gonna tell me who you are."

"I'm Detective Elle Greenaway. So, how is it going?" Seeing that he was still frowning and was probably debating with himself whether he should answer her question or not, Elle added,

"If you're unsure if you should tell me - why don't you call Detective Taylor and ask him for his opinion?" A polite smile appeared on her face.

"Well, actually I don't have anything so far - the guy has such a good security system. I tried to hack into it. Now I'm dealing with this..." He pointed at the screen.

A moment later Elle's face lit up and she stretched her hand out to the phone, starting to dial a number.

After a moment she stated,

"Hey Garcia, it's Elle." She listened for a moment,

"Yeah, I'm fine. Listen are you currently busy?" After a few seconds she went on,

"Great, 'cause I could use your help on something. I'm gonna hand the phone over to a tech from the crime lab. Now what I need you to do is give him instructions to get access to a laptop with a very sophisticated security system." She went silent and grinned,

"That's why I called ya. Thanks for your help, Garcia - oh, and I'd prefer if you don't tell the others about my call." A moment later she handed the receiver to Adam, then she jotted something down on a piece of paper and put it down next to the laptop,

"Call me when you got something." With that Elle left to talk with Mac.

_Tbc_

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_**A/N:**__ I'll repost the next two chapters soon as well, but being as the next one is a bit long it might take a bit... In the meantime feel free to review and let me know what you think. :)_


	4. Surprises

**Changes**

_4. Surprises_

As Elle reached Mac's office she knocked against the open door, causing the leader of the Crime Lab to look up from whatever he was reading.

"You got a moment?" Elle asked.

"Sure, come in." After a moment he added,

"What's the matter?"

"I was wondering if you happen to know what connection Anderson and Humphrey had."

"Unfortunately not. You think that whatever the connection was is also the reason why Humphrey freaked out like this?"

"Exactly."

In that moment Adam walked up to them, a cheerful smile on his face.

"I got something." As Elle and Mac followed him back to the A/V lab Adam added,

"Your friend was a lot of help." He gave Elle a look, causing her to smile and Mac to frown.

"Well, she was involved in developing the program and is quite a genius when it comes down to all that tech stuff in general..."

"So, what did you find?" Mac wanted to know after a moment of silence.

"I might have found out what Agent Anderson wanted from Humphrey."

By now they had reached the A/V lab and Adam headed over to the laptop and stated, while pointing at one of the screens,

"Watch this..." He hit some keys of the laptop and a video started playing on the screen he had pointed at.

After a moment Mac said,

"That's a surveillance tape... Did Humphrey make this video?"

"I think so. There are several other videos like this on here." Adam replied.

"Explains why he came here - he probably observed his apartment, he saw us leaving with the laptop and now he wants it back." Elle mused,

"I guess, it's time to have a li'l chat with Humphrey."

Elle and Mac exchanged a look then they left. On the way out of the room Mac told Adam,

"Keep looking through the files - in case you find something interesting give me a call."

"Sure."

_**~oOo~**_

Entering the break-room Lindsay gave Flack a curious glance.

"What are you doing here?"

"I'm avoiding Elle."

"What's the deal between the two of you anyways?" Lindsay wanted to know, filling a cup with coffee.

"It's nothing, really."

Hearing that Lindsay raised an eyebrow as she sat down opposite Flack.

"It's just the way she sometimes behaves..."

"Like what?"

Flack sighed.

"She's a damn know-it-all - in case you haven't noticed so far."

"Wait, you're not feeling intimidated by her, do you?" The CSI couldn't help but grin teasingly at the black-haired Detective.

"Nope. It's just annoying that's all. I mean, if she's such a great FBI agent and profiler then what is she doing here, working with the NYPD?"

"Why don't you simply ask her if it bothers you so much?"

"She might just shoot me."

"Come on Flack, she seems actually quite nice."

"Who seems quite nice?" Peyton wanted to know as she walked up to them.

"Elle. The new Detective." Lindsay answered, looking at the other woman.

Peyton smiled and nodded in agreement.

"She certainly is."

Flack just rolled his eyes, then he got up and stated on his way out,

"Well, I gotta go and check if her plan actually works."

_**~oOo~**_

Just as Mac and Elle returned to the elevator Flack walked up to them and the four HRT agents.

"So, what's the plan?" Flack asked, looking at Mac.

"Don't ask me - it's up to Elle."

Flack couldn't help but sigh, then he looked at Elle and gave her a questioning glance.

Taking a look at the monitor Elle frowned for a moment. Eventually she took a deep breath and turned to look at Flack, telling him,

"Negotiating... After all, Humphrey must have a reason for killing a security-guard and holding Jess hostage."

"You mean beside being totally crazy?" Flack asked in response, sarcasm etched to his voice.

"He actually might not be as crazy as you think." Elle pointed out and reached for the receiver of the phone that was standing next to the monitor.

_**~oOo~**_

Watching the hostage taker pace around in the carrier Angell frowned. Just like he had demanded she had remained quiet after advising him to talk with the responsible officer, after all, there wasn't really anything to talk about, right? And besides that she didn't want to provoke him further by ignoring his instructions.

She wasn't quite sure how much time had passed when the speaker on the panel creaked and a moment later she heard a familiar voice stating calmly,

_"This is Detective Greenaway. I think it's getting time to talk about how to end this without you or Detective Angell getting hurt. To talk with me just push the call button on the panel." _It was silent for a while as Elle waited for the man to respond, when he remained quiet she continued,

_"Listen, Mr Humphrey, we know about Anderson, about the videos on your laptop... And I'll be honest with you - it doesn't look good for you so far, so you should better tell me your side of the story, because not everybody is willing to wait for you to surrender on your own, you understand that?"_

Humphrey still refused to speak with Elle so Angell broke after a moment the silence and told him,

"You should talk with her."

He stopped pacing and looked at her for a moment, then he inquired,

"And why should I do that?"

"Because it's the only way you're getting out of this elevator alive. Unlike others she's gonna listen to what you have to say before deciding how to proceed." Angell replied.

Humphrey frowned for a moment then he sighed heavily and lifted his hand to the panel and pressing the call button he stated,

"You better don't think about playing some sort of game with me, 'cause if I find out that you're trying to trick me she's gonna die, got that?" With that he pointed one of the guns at Angell and looked straight into the security camera.

_**~oOo~**_

Seeing Humphrey point the gun at Angell and the determination on his face Elle thought for a moment, then she said,

"No games." She paused, watching how Humphrey let the gun sink, then she asked,

"So, what do you want?"

_"I want my freedom, my life back!"_ Humphrey told her, causing Elle to frown.

"You killed three people so it's gonna be hard to justify letting you walk, you know that, right?"

_"I had no choice!"_

"Why's that?"

_"You said you know about the videos from my laptop so you should know the answer." _Humphrey retorted.

"You were observing and filming people, but that's no explanation for killing your therapist, or Anderson - and even less for killing the security-guard."

_"Anderson wanted to kill me - it was either him or me, and Dr Montgomery was helping him." _He replied,

_"Look, I'm sorry about that security-guard, I didn't mean to kill him - but it happened, I can't change anything about that."_

"What makes you think that Anderson and Montgomery planned to kill you? After all, what reason would they have to want you dead? You worked for Anderson, and Montgomery was making money by treating you - what would they earn by killing you?"

_"It's all in the videos. All the answers are on my laptop."_ Humphrey muttered and she watched how he sat down on the ground of the elevator, apparently deciding that the conversation was over for the time being.

"And what do we do now, Greenaway?" Flack asked giving her a look.

"We're gonna find out if he might be right. And that means _**you **_either accept the fact that nobody will even _**think **_about forcing their way inside the elevator or leave - 'cause I don't have time to deal with some trigger-happy detective or HRT agent, got that?" With that Elle looked for a moment at the HRT agents, then she turned and left to check on Adam's progress.

Watching her leave Flack wanted to know,

"Mac, do you really think that it's wise to let her call the shots?"

"Yeah, I do. So far it doesn't look like Humphrey's gonna hurt Angell and that's my main priority at the moment." Mac replied,

"Furthermore she bought us some time to figure out what's really going on, after all, maybe his story is true."

Flack sighed then he spoke up once more,

"Alright, so what am I supposed to do?"

"Try to find out if there's some sort of connection between Agent Anderson and Dr Montgomery - beside Humphrey."

Flack nodded and left.

_**~oOo~**_

As Elle entered the A/V lab Adam turned to look at her for a moment, before focusing his attention back on the screen in front of him.

"You found anything interesting so far?" She asked after a few seconds.

"Well, not exactly. I only saw a few of the videos yet, I'm running the facial recognition software on them, might help identifying the people he filmed." Adam said in response.

"Good. Beside the videos is there anything else on the laptop?" Elle wanted to know.

"To be honest I didn't check yet, the videos were the first thing I found, so..."

"How about you get some of your colleagues to look through Humphrey's footage, while you look at the other stuff?" Elle suggested after a moment, causing Adam to look once more at her.

After a moment of consideration he nodded and stated,

"I think that would speed things up a lot."

"Let me know when you got something."

"Sure."

A few seconds later she left the A/V lab and headed to the break-room to get herself some coffee while thinking about what to do next. As she was filling a cup with coffee she heard someone approach, causing her to turn to look at the person. Seeing that it was Lindsay a smile appeared on her face.

"I was already looking for you." Lindsay stated walking up to her.

"Why's that?" Elle asked and gave her a questioning glance.

"Well, we took the meds you found in Humphrey's bathroom with us for analysis and it turned out that the Haloperidol is in fact no Haloperidol at all." Lindsay replied.

"You also know what it is instead?" Elle wanted to know.

"Eh, not yet, but I'll let you know when I figured it out." Lindsay paused for a moment,

"So, how's it going with making Humphrey surrender?"

Elle frowned, then she took a deep breath and said,

"Humphrey doesn't seem like a violent person. It looks more like he acted on the belief that Anderson and Montgomery were planning to kill him. I don't think that he had intended to kill the security-guard."

"Well, that's good, right? After all, that means he probably won't hurt Angell."

"I hope so. However, it's still too early to say anything for certain, considering that no matter whether he's a violent person or not - Humphrey might freak out nonetheless if the pressure gets too much or if he gets provoked by something." Elle pointed out, taking a sip of her coffee.

_**~oOo~**_

While waiting for Dr Montgomery's phone records to be faxed over to the lab Flack wondered once more if Elle's way of handling the situation might really be the best. After all, who knew what could happen if they tried to force their way into the elevator.

Even though he hated it when he had to admit that he was wrong, this wasn't the time for letting his ego get the better of him. Right now the most important thing was to get Angell out of the elevator unharmed and if Elle's plan was the best way to guarantee that Angell won't get hurt he would have to swallow his pride and stick to the plan.

Releasing a sigh Flack took a look at his watch and frowned. He couldn't stand this entire waiting - it was driving him totally insane!

Just a short moment later he was interrupted in his train of thought as he heard the sound of the fax-machine and couldn't help but release a relieved sigh, being glad that the waiting was over.

Grabbing the sheets of paper he took a short glance at the first page, then he got up and headed for the break-room, considering that he could really use some coffee before focusing on checking the numbers from Montgomery's phone records.

As he entered the break-room Elle and Lindsay turned to look at him and Elle wanted to know, pointing at the papers in his hands,

"What's that?"

"Montgomery's phone records of the last four weeks. Mac wanted me to figure out if there might be a link between Montgomery and Anderson beside their association with Humphrey." Flack replied.

_Meanwhile:_

After making sure that Sullivan and his team won't do anything to provoke Humphrey Mac headed for his office. Entering the room he couldn't help but smile as he saw Peyton sitting in front of his desk.

Hearing him approach she turned to look at him and got up, a smile on her face.

"You're making progress on getting Angell out of the elevator?" She asked after a moment.

"Well, sort of..." Mac stated and frowned for a few seconds.

"I heard that you decided to let Detective Greenaway take the lead?"

"I did. After all, she got a point when saying that trying to force Humphrey to give himself up is only putting Angell in more danger. And so far it looks like it was the right decision." Mac replied, a hint of tension etched to his voice.

"I wasn't questioning your decision, you know..." Peyton pointed out.

"Yeah, I know, Peyton." He said and smiled at her,

"So, did you just wait here to ask me about the negotiations or is there anything else?"

"I also came by to give you the final autopsy report on Dr Montgomery." She told him and handed him the file she had been holding,

"I was able to confirm Sheldon's theory that Montgomery has been tortured a few hours prior to his death. The burn-marks Sheldon found were caused by electro shocks. COD was a heart-attack..."

"A heart-attack? He was only 32, he was in good physical shape..." Mac paused for a short moment, then he inquired,

"Was the torture the cause of the heart-attack?"

"Partly. The electro shocks weakened his heart, however, it were actually several different factors that added up to the heart-attack. First of all, Montgomery's family has a history of heart-diseases - his father and grandfather had both a heart-problem. Furthermore the tox report showed that Dr Montgomery wasn't just doing drugs but he also took numerous meds." Peyton trailed off.

"What about all the stab-wounds?" Mac asked.

"All post-mortem. However, he was stabbed only a short moment after his death." Peyton replied.

"Probably Humphrey didn't know that Montgomery was already dead when he stabbed him." Mac mused.

"Could be considering that death was almost instantaneous - Humphrey might have thought that he was only unconscious."

"You said he was tortured hours before he died?"

"Yeah, why are you asking?" Peyton gave him a curious glance.

"That just doesn't make sense. Why would Humphrey torture his therapist and then wait several hours before killing him?"

"I'm sure you're gonna find out." Peyton stated and they shared a smile,

"Well, I gotta get back to work. I'll see you later..."

Seeing him nod Peyton left. After watching her leave Mac focused his attention on the autopsy report in his hands, taking a closer look at Peyton's findings.

_About fifteen minutes later:_

Nearing the conference-room a relieved expression crossed Mac's face as he saw that the others were already waiting for him.

"Okay, what do we got so far?" He asked as he entered the room and took a seat.

"Well, so far I wasn't able to find a prior connection between Anderson and Montgomery." Flack started,

"However, Anderson was working for the NSA so it's likely that he paid attention to not leave any obvious traces of himself anywhere - especially if he was really planning to kill Humphrey. But I'll keep working on it."

Mac nodded then he looked at Adam and wanted to know,

"How's it going with the files from the laptop?"

"We're making progress, but we're still not done with looking through the footage. Humphrey was apparently a busy man, there are hundreds of videos on the laptop." Adam replied.

"Did you get any results with the facial-recognition software?" Elle inquired.

"I found some matches with criminals, mainly drug-dealers..." Adam said.

"Do we know if Humphrey also worked for other people than Anderson?" Stella asked.

"Doesn't look like it, why?"

"It just seems a little odd to me that a NSA agent had an interest in drug-dealers." She pointed out.

"Can you pull the rap sheets of the people you were able to identify?" Mac spoke up.

"Sure." Adam typed for a moment and put the criminal record of the first guy on the screen on the wall.

"Bob Johnson, 27, convicted for numerous petty crimes - nothing that would explain Anderson's interest." Flack stated after taking a glance at the screen.

"Did you find a connection between these people? Shared associates or anything else that links them?" Mac wanted to know.

"Not yet, still working on it." Adam replied.

"What else do we know so far?" Mac inquired.

"Well, it looks more and more like Humphrey's saying the truth." Hawkes started,

"The pills Dr Montgomery had prescribed him contained traces of different meds which, added together, would have acted like poison over time and would've eventually led to his death."

"But why did they want to kill Humphrey?" Stella asked.

"Maybe he found out that Anderson was using him for his own purposes and refused to keep working for him." Elle stated, looking up from the file she had been reading.

"His own purposes?" Flack spoke up,

"What would that be?"

"He had a personal interest in the people Humphrey filmed, it had nothing to do with any NSA investigation." Elle started.

"And how do you know that?"

Elle glanced at the file in her hands for a few seconds then she focused her attention back on Flack and told him, lifting the file,

"This is Anderson's personal file - someone from the NSA still owed me a favor... Anyways, according to this file Anderson hasn't worked for the NSA during the last thirteen months. First he was seriously injured while pursuing a target and was on medical leave for five months. And a few weeks after he came back he got suspended for assaulting a colleague. It seems like that colleague confronted Anderson about being corrupt, he apparently reported Anderson. They started an internal investigation against him..." Elle paused for a few seconds,

"Bottom-line - nobody actually knows what Anderson was doing here, or if and for how long he was already doing it before he got suspended."

Just as Elle had trailed off a tech entered the room and handed Stella a file. The CSI thanked the woman and took a quick look through the file. After a moment Stella explained,

"We found a cell phone in Humphrey's apartment. It seems like it belonged to Anderson, considering that we didn't find any traces of Humphrey on it. Anderson might have lost it during their fight... Either way we were able to access the data from the cell, we've got a complete list of his recent calls."

"Can I take a look?" Flack asked and Stella handed him the file.

While Flack was comparing the numbers Anderson had called with Montgomery's phone records Stella added,

"We also managed to restore some deleted text messages from the cell phone."

"Put them on the screen." Mac ordered, causing Stella to nod and type something on the laptop in front of her.

"Here you go." She said and pointed at the screen, where the first messages appeared,

"This first one was sent about eight weeks ago. He mentions a secret and reminds the other person to stick to the plan. The other person assures Anderson that he would do everything to keep him from revealing his secret." Stella put up the next two messages,

"No further messages throughout the next sixteen days, then Anderson sent another text. Now he seems to get impatient and wants to know why "it" takes so long. The reply came almost immediately, the other person tries to calm him down - writes that stuff like that takes time if you want to avoid leaving traces."

"Hey, I found the connection between Anderson and Montgomery. They were talking on the phone at least a few dozen times during the past four weeks." Flack told them after Stella had gone silent.

"Okay, let's say the person Anderson exchanged those text messages with was Montgomery and that "it" was killing Humphrey - what did Anderson know about Montgomery that gave him so much power?" Danny asked.

"Anderson probably knew that Montgomery was doing drugs - if he had reported him Montgomery would have lost everything." Mac replied,

"The question is how did Anderson find out about it - and when did he find out."

"I think I might have the answer to that question." Adam spoke up, after having remained quiet ever since telling them about his progress on the videos. While the others had been talking about their findings he had focused his attention back on Humphrey's footage and had apparently found something.

Mac gave him an expectant look and signalled him to continue.

"Well, it seems like Anderson had really a personal interest in those people that Humphrey was filming. Take a look at this." He pointed at the screen and hit some keys on his laptop.

A few seconds later a video started playing. After a short moment of silence Stella stated,

"Apparently Anderson was really corrupt - he was working with these criminals. Probably that's also what led to his death. Humphrey saw the video and refused to continue with his work."

"And it explains how Anderson found out about Montgomery's drug problem. He told his criminal friends to search for dirt on Montgomery." Flack added.

"Okay, so Anderson blackmails Montgomery to get rid of Humphrey. Humphrey somehow finds out about Anderson's plan and decides to retaliate by killing them first." Stella concluded,

"But why didn't he go to the police instead of becoming a killer himself?"

"He couldn't go to the police because they won't have believed him - and Humphrey knew that. After all, Montgomery was treating him because of paranoid schizophrenia and Anderson worked for the government. And considering his mental issues along with his knowledge of Anderson's plan Humphrey probably didn't trust the authorities enough to report them." Hawkes pointed out,

"It might also explain why Humphrey first tortured Montgomery and didn't kill him until a few hours later. He probably wanted to first figure out if the info Montgomery gave him was true, considering that he needed proof against Anderson first."

Mac thought for a moment then he looked at Elle and broke eventually the silence,

"Judging by your experience as profiler, would you say that Humphrey is capable of torturing someone?"

After a few seconds of thinking Elle shook slowly her head no and replied,

"Most definitely not. Humphrey's way too compassionate and his sense of right and wrong is by far too strong as that he would put someone knowingly through pain. Furthermore he lacks the necessary violent potential and indifference for using torture to gain information."

"Even if it's a matter of life and death for him?" Flack wanted to know, a doubtful frown on his face.

"Yeah. You remember when he talked about the security-guard he has killed?" Seeing Flack nod, she continued,

"He said the truth when he told us that he didn't mean to kill him. He feels remorse for killing him..."

"And someone that tortures won't feel bad for killing someone?" Mac mused.

"Precisely. And why would he take the file on him if he made Montgomery tell him everything he needed to know? It doesn't make sense. Furthermore I seriously doubt that Humphrey really has any sort of mental disease."

"Then what's your theory?" Mac inquired.

"Well, Anderson knew that the NSA was investigating him. He was probably aware of the fact that they would sooner or later find out about his illegal activities here in New York if he had too much contact to the criminals from the videos." Elle started,

"By hiring Humphrey to take those videos he was able to kill two birds with the same stone - he was able to gather info on his associates without having to meet them in person all the time and at the same time he got himself an insurance policy." She paused for a moment,

"According to Anderson's personal file it seems quite likely that even if he hadn't been suspended for attacking his colleague he won't have been working for the NSA for that much longer. Throughout his career all of Anderson's supervisors had apparently been concerned about Anderson's mental health. But somehow he always managed to pass the psych evaluation and they couldn't prove their suspicions." Another pause,

"However, I managed to get the phone number of the colleague that was attacked and called him. Judging by what he told me Anderson seemed to have shown severe psychopathic tendencies, the smallest things already caused him to become so furious that he would lose completely control over himself. Furthermore he was apparently quite paranoid..." Elle took a deep breath,

"I think that when he hired Humphrey he wanted to make sure to eliminate any potential risks, he ran a background check trying to find some sort of dirt on Humphrey. When he couldn't find anything he had to find another way to keep Humphrey under control. Probably he had already known Montgomery from before, knew about his addiction and forced him to help him - after all, if you can't find something solid to blackmail someone the easiest alternative to have the necessary power over someone is to undermine the person's credibility." Elle took a sip of her coffee,

"Anderson probably got one of his criminal friends to follow and spook Humphrey. Eventually it got too much for Humphrey and he went to Anderson, asking him for help. Anderson, however, told him that it was just the stress and sent him to Montgomery. Considering that he knew about Montgomery's addiction he was able to force him to declare Humphrey a schizophrenic."

"And for a while his plan worked, but then Humphrey filmed Anderson with that criminal and wanted to stop working for him." Stella said.

"Exactly, Anderson probably tried to play it off as a result of the schizophrenia, but he couldn't take the risk that Humphrey might rat him out, so he forced Montgomery to take care of getting rid of Humphrey. Montgomery added the drug mix to the placebos he was usually giving Humphrey instead of the Haloperidol." Elle continued,

"Anderson got impatient, started threatening Montgomery to speed things up. However, eventually something unexpected happened that caused Anderson to freak out..."

"You also happen to know what that was?" Flack inquired.

"Nope, and I doubt it really matters." Elle pointed out,

"The point is something made Anderson lose his trust in Montgomery. Maybe he thought that Montgomery and Humphrey had decided to work together to bring him down, or he started believing that Montgomery had no intention to follow his instructions anymore - either way he needed to know if his suspicions were correct, so he confronted Montgomery. Of course Montgomery told him that he was wrong, but Anderson didn't believe him and tortured him until Montgomery told him what he had wanted to hear. A few hours later Humphrey showed up and confronted Montgomery with his knowledge about Anderson's plan. Probably Humphrey pulled his knife to threaten Montgomery and the pressure got too much. He had a heart-attack just as Humphrey lost his patience and began stabbing him..."

"However, Humphrey didn't know about the heart-attack - he thought he had killed Montgomery. After realizing that his therapist was dead he probably panicked and hurried back home, running right into Anderson's arms. Humphrey knew that Anderson had come to kill him so he pulled his knife again and attacked Anderson, before he was able to do something. Anderson pulled his gun causing Humphrey to put his knife away and struggle with Anderson for the gun. The gun goes off, the bullet hits Anderson who drops his gun. Humphrey sees his chance and pulls his knife back out to finish the job. He sets the body on fire until he can be sure that the identification would be difficult enough to buy himself some time." Mac picked up,

"Then he put out the fire and hurried to leave his apartment to clear his head. Eventually he came up with a solution for his problems and headed back home. However, when he got there he saw that the police was there and realized that they had already found the body. He decided to stay outside and observe for the time being, while reconsidering his options. When he saw that his laptop was taken to the lab as well he decided that he had to get it back somehow. He got himself a gun and came here - without a real plan. Probably he didn't consider the fact that he won't be able to simply walk in here with a gun, get his laptop and leave. When the security guards stopped him because of the gun he lost it and shot one of them. And to raise his chances to get out of this alive he took Angell hostage." Mac paused, then he added,

"The question is - how do we make him surrender? After all, we can't just let him walk out of here."

Before anyone was able to say something else Mac's cell phone started ringing and he hurried to answer the call,

"What's the matter?"

_"Well, you said I should let you know if something changes."_ Sullivan stated on the other end of the line.

"What happened?" Mac wanted to know, while putting the call on the speakers.

_"Humphrey demands to talk with Greenaway. He told me to get her right away and that if she isn't on the phone in three minutes he will kill Detective Angell."_ Sullivan replied.

"Did he say what the matter is?" Elle inquired, already getting up.

_"Nope. He refuses to talk with me or any of my agents."_ Sullivan said, a trace of anger or annoyance etched to his voice.

_**~oOo~**_

After Humphrey had chosen to end the conversation with Elle he had remained completely silent. Angell had by now lost all sense of time and it was driving her absolutely crazy to be stuck in the elevator. However, she also knew that it would be a waste of time if she tried to make Humphrey give up. Therefore all she could do was wait for Elle and the others to find a way to get her out of there.

She wasn't quite sure how much time had passed when Humphrey got up from the ground of the elevator and reached for the control panel. Pushing the call button he stated,

"Get Detective Greenaway, I need to talk with her."

_"Well, she's currently busy trying to confirm your story, what's the matter?" _A male voice stated.

Hearing that Humphrey pulled out one of the guns and pointed it at Angell, while hissing,

"I said get Greenaway! And let me make one thing clear - if she's not on the other end of the line in exactly three minutes you're gonna have to explain to her why this Detective has a bullet-hole between her eyes, _**got that**_?!"

_"Of course." _The other man said.

Humphrey took a look at his watch and checked the time.

"You do realize that if you kill me you're gonna die as well, don't you?" Angell broke the silence.

"I'm doomed anyways. However, why don't we just hope that this dumbass follows my order and she makes it here on time?" Humphrey replied,

"And besides how do you wanna know if I might not just be bluffing? After all, I told you - I have no intention to kill you, and usually I tend to stay true to my word."

A moment later he took another look at his watch and said,

"Times up. Let's see if your friend made it in time."

"What makes you think that she's my friend?" Angell asked.

"You put a lot of trust in her, I noticed that - after all, I'm making money with watching people - and besides, you seem to know her quite well, otherwise you won't have been so sure that she would listen to what I have to say." He told her, then he reached for the call button.

However, before he was able to say something Elle's voice was heard,

_"You wanted to talk with me?"_

"Yes indeed. I was wondering if you already realized that I had no other choice but to kill Anderson and Montgomery, 'cause to be honest I'm starting to get tired of this." Humphrey told her.

_"Well, first of all, we know now that you don't have any mental disease. Furthermore we found the video that shows Anderson with one of his criminal friends. I can also tell you that you didn't kill Montgomery. He didn't die because you stabbed him - he had a heart-attack." _Elle stated.

"Oh, really?" Humphrey asked in response.

_"Yes, Anderson was responsible for his death..."_ Elle paused for a moment, then she suggested,

_"How about you come out of the elevator and we continue this talk face to face?"_

"Why would I take the risk to get killed by your people the moment the elevator-doors open? After all, I'm not stupid!"

_"Sooner or later you will have to leave the elevator anyways. Furthermore, nobody wants to kill you, okay? You know you can trust me."_

"I'm gonna think about it." Humphrey replied after a short moment of consideration.

_"You got five minutes to make a decision."_ Elle told him.

Taking a look at his watch he inquired,

"And what if I decide to stay in here? You're gonna force your way in?"

_"Nope. It's up to you when you come out of there. However, it would certainly have a positive effect on your situation if you show us some good will now that we checked your side of the story." _

_**~oOo~**_

While waiting for Humphrey's decision Elle turned toward Sullivan and told him,

"I think it would be best if you and your team leave."

"Oh, really? And why's that?" Sullivan retorted.

"Because when Humphrey comes out of the elevator - and he's most definitely gonna do so - it would only provoke him if he's greeted by heavily armed men." Elle said, determination written all over her face.

"What's making you so sure that he will come out?" Sullivan demanded to know.

"Humphrey his intelligent enough to know that the sooner he comes out of there the better are his chances to get a good deal with the prosecution." She replied,

"And with _**all due **_respect - I think we can handle this also without the HRT."

Sullivan looked for a moment questioning at Mac and seeing him nod gave his agents the signal to leave. After taking a look at the retreating figures of Sullivan and his team Elle focused her attention on Mac and Flack.

"I think you should already head to the ground floor..." She suggested a few seconds later.

"You're absolutely sure about this?" Flack inquired.

"I'm sure."

"And what do we do when Humphrey comes out of the elevator?" Mac wanted to know.

"We bring him to the precinct to finish questioning him. The rest is up to the DA's Office." Elle replied and took a glance at her watch, before adding,

"Time's almost up."

"I just hope you're right, Greenaway." Flack stated, then he and Mac left for the ground floor, while Elle stayed.

Checking once more the time she grabbed the receiver of the phone.

"Mr Humphrey the five minutes are over. Did you make a decision yet?" She wanted to know.

_"You're gonna arrest me for murder as soon as I come out, right?" _Humphrey inquired.

"Yes, but I'm sure that if you give yourself up now, without hurting anybody else, the responsible DA will offer you a deal, considering that you clearly had no intention to kill the security-guard." Elle told him calmly,

"However, I can't make any promises, okay? What happens now depends on your decisions - on whether you let Detective Angell go now, or not."

Humphrey remained silent for a while, apparently contemplating about his options, eventually he stated,

_"Give me a few more minutes and I come down." _

"Okay." Elle said and chose to already head down.

_A few minutes later:_

Elle had just reached the ground floor when Mac already told her that the elevator was on the way down.

As the doors opened Elle somehow expected to see Humphrey holding Angell at gunpoint to make sure that nobody would even consider to shoot him. However, instead he stood in the center of the elevator, hands lifted in surrender.

After Angell had stepped out of the elevator Flack went to handcuff Humphrey while Elle waited for Angell to reach her.

"You're okay?" Elle wanted to know.

"Yeah, thanks to you I'm alright." Angell replied and smiled,

"However, remind me to take the stairs next time."

Hearing that Elle couldn't help but chuckle, eventually she pointed out,

"Don't worry, after all, I'm quite sure that the odds that something like this will happen again when you're around are very low. And besides, do you really wanna take now always the stairs just because of this - I mean, this is New York. What do you wanna do if someone gets killed on the roof of the Empire State Building - tell the Captain to assign the case to someone else?"

"Very funny..." Jess stated and grimaced.

_At the precinct, twenty minutes later:_

Entering the interrogation-room Flack and Elle exchanged a look, before taking a seat in front of Humphrey and his lawyer.

"Well, we already know that Agent Anderson forced Dr Montgomery to declare you a schizophrenic and that he forced him to poison you. What I don't understand is - how did you find out about Anderson's plan to kill you?" Elle broke the silence after a moment.

Humphrey thought for a moment, then he took a deep breath and started,

"After I saw Anderson on that video with one of the drug-dealers I was supposed to observe I started questioning his motives, I started thinking that his plan might not be to collect evidence against these guys and that he was working with them. When I confronted him he tried to make me believe that I'm just seeing things." He paused for a moment,

"However, instead of making my doubts subside he only increased them and made me more suspicious. A few days later I had an appointment with Dr Montgomery. I hadn't paid attention to the actual time so I was over an hour early. When I arrived I saw Anderson leave and I came to the conclusion that they were probably working together. Therefore I decided to skip the appointment and started looking for a new therapist to find out if Montgomery might be lying. It took a while but eventually I found out that my suspicions had been right." He thought for a few seconds,

"For a while I thought about what I should do - what I could do - after all, I had no proof or anything. Eventually I chose to confront Montgomery, and surprisingly he admitted almost immediately that he had lied - and that Anderson wanted him to kill me. You know the rest..."


	5. The thing with opposites

_**A/N:** __This is the last of the reposted chapters. Have fun reading!_

* * *

**Changes**

_5. The thing with opposites_

After they had finished their paperwork Flack and Angell took Elle to meet up with the CSIs for drinks at the bar they usually headed to. When they arrived the others were already there so Elle, Flack and Angell simply headed over to where the CSIs were sitting. Once they had sat down and had ordered something to drink Elle and Angell started talking with the others, while Flack went to play pool with Danny.

Before long the conversation drifted off to the events of the day, to how Elle had managed to talk Humphrey into surrendering... After talking for quite a while about the case they had just closed as well as others, and work in general they started speaking about more personal things, though the focus of the conversation centered around Elle for the most part - her work with the BAU, where she had been working before that, her college time, how she was getting used to being back in NYC...

Throughout the course of the evening the CSIs and Elle had started getting to know each other. Elle had learned a lot about her new colleagues, the team's dynamics and the bonds between them, noticing even small details that weren't obvious to everyone. She also noticed, with quite some relief she had to admit, that Flack's hostility or whatever it had been had started fading away.

The next day Elle was called in to work quite early. So she quickly got up and started getting ready for work. After starting the coffee maker she headed to the bathroom for a quick shower. Once she was dressed she went back to the kitchen and had a cup of coffee and a small breakfast, before hurrying to blow dry her hair and only a few minutes later she went to leave. On her way out she quickly checked that she had her purse, her cell phone and gun and after making sure that the door was locked she quickly headed out of the building and to her car.

She had known from what she had been told on the phone that it had been a brutal murder, but it wasn't until she got to the scene that she realized how bad it was. An entire family had been murdered - the parents and three children, including a fifteen months old baby, and the family dog. All of them had been stabbed multiple times and judging by the amount of blood at the scene Elle came to the conclusion that it was a fair assumption that all of them had died from exsanguination.

At first glance it was hard to tell what exactly had happened or how the killer had gotten in. While the house was quite messy it didn't seem like it had been a robbery gone wrong, considering that the chaos seemed more like the result of a struggle rather than someone searching for something. There were no obvious signs of forced entry, though that didn't have to necessarily mean that a member of the family had let the killer in.

After taking another look around she headed over to one of the unis and asked him what he knew. While she was talking with him the first of the CSIs arrived, including Hawkes who headed straight to the bodies and started with his first examination. Once she was done with talking with one of the officer's who had been first at the scene Elle questioned the woman who had found the bodies and who turned out to be the family's maid. A couple of minutes later she went over to Hawkes to find out what he could tell her so far.

When she had reached him she said,

"Hey Hawkes." As he raised his gaze and looked at her Elle continued,

"What can you tell me so far about the victims?"

"Well, they were stabbed to death, though I'm not entirely sure yet whether they died due to exsanguination or because some vital organ was injured." Hawkes replied.

"Time of death?" Elle asked.

Hawkes thought for a moment then he told her,

"Judging by the victims' liver temperature and the state of rigor mortis of the bodies I'd say they all died around roughly the same time. I put the preliminary TOD at somewhere between 10 PM and 1:30 AM last night."

Elle nodded and thanked him before letting him get back to work, deciding to go and question some of the neighbors. On her way out she met Mac and paused to tell him what the uni and maid had told her.

"...I'll go talk with the neighbors and check if one of them might have seen or heard something." Elle finished.

Mac nodded and told her,

"Let me know in case you find something interesting."

"Sure." Elle said and went to leave the house of the victims.

Once outside she paused, taking a glance around before heading to the house to the right, deciding to start with that neighbor.

_Two and a half hours later:_

When she was done questioning the neighbors Elle let out a sigh and headed to her car to get to the precinct. On her way to the car she pulled out her cell phone to call Mac, considering that she wasn't sure whether he was still at the scene or already back at the lab.

She had just reached her car and gotten into the driver's seat when Mac answered her call.

"Hey Mac, it's Elle. I'm done questioning the neighbors." Elle stated as she started the engine of her car and drove off. She told him that none of the neighbors could imagine why someone would've wanted the Hayward family dead - Mr and Mrs Hayward had been very kind and were overall very good neighbors, the children had been adorable and probably the most pleasant in the whole neighborhood and the dog had been an angel, barely ever barking throughout the night. However, last night those living closest to the Hayward family had heard a lot of noise and Shelly - the family dog - had been barking unusually much, but since it was basically the first time that this had happened none of them had felt the need to complain.

"That was somewhere between eleven PM and midnight." Elle added. Once she had finished telling Mac what she had found out she asked,

"How about you? You found anything of interest at the scene?"

"We found fresh tool marks on the lock of the front-door, so that's probably how the killer got in. It doesn't seem like anything is missing - silverware, electronics, Mrs Hayward's jewelry, their money and credit cards are all still there, and judging by the brutality of the murders the killer was probably motivated by some personal motive." Mac told her and Elle couldn't help but agree - the rage involved in the killings suggested that the killer knew at least one member of the family.

They kept talking for a couple of minutes, during which Mac mentioned some other things they had found while processing the scene - including a couple of shoe prints, and Elle told him what the crime scene and MO could tell them about the killer.

"... We're dealing with an organized killer. Most likely a white male in his mid-thirties to mid-forties, who knew either one or both of the parents and as you already said - the motive was something personal. Which is why I will run background checks on Mr and Mrs Hayward once I get to the precinct." Elle said.

"Alright, let me know if anything comes up." Mac replied.

"Will do." Elle assured, and after a second or two she added,

"Oh, and Mac, could you make sure that I'll get copies of the autopsy reports?"

"Sure, I'll have them faxed to the precinct." Mac said.

"Thanks." With that Elle hung up.

It took them two days to close the case and arrest the killer of the Hayward family. In the end it had turned out that they had been killed by Mrs Hayward's ex-husband, who had never gotten over the divorce and had been stalking her for the past couple of years. Unable to stand the fact that the woman he loved was happy with another man and his children - the two older ones - saw her new husband as their father, he had eventually snapped and killed all of them. It had been rather simple to get him to confess, though they had enough evidence against him to make the confession more a formality rather than a necessity.

Considering that the case had gotten quite a lot to all of them they decided to go and have some drinks.

_Around 1:45 AM:_

Elle was rather quiet all evening, thinking while the others were talking. Lost in thought as she was she wasn't aware of her colleagues' conversation nor the passing of time or how the others left one by one until only she and Flack were left.

Elle wasn't sure how much time had passed when Flack's voice disrupted her in her thoughts. Looking at her colleague she gave him a questioning glance.

"It's getting late, maybe we should call it a day." Flack stated, meeting her gaze.

After a moment of consideration and a glance at her watch Elle nodded slightly in agreement. They paid their drinks and a moment later they stepped out of the bar.

Once outside they took a look around in search for a cab, but couldn't see any. When one showed finally up they decided in silent agreement to share the ride and got in together. After closing the car door Elle told the cabbie her address and a moment later the cab drove off.

As the cab stopped in front of the apartment building where she lived Elle paid her part of the ride. Already moving to open the door and get out she paused and turned once more around to look at Flack. Seeing the expression on his face she smiled slightly and said,

"Wanna come in?"

Returning the smile Flack replied,

"Sure."

A moment later they got out of the cab and Elle led the way to the entrance of the building and once inside to the elevator. When they had reached the right floor and stopped in front of the door to her apartment Elle quickly went to unlock the door. Meanwhile Flack brushed her hair over her left shoulder, exposing the side of her throat, before leaning down and brushing a kiss against her skin. As Flack kissed her Elle's eyes flew momentarily shut.

Only a few seconds later Elle had unlocked and opened the door and they went inside. Flack followed her in and after closing the door he drew her close and their lips locked in a passionate kiss.

When she began leading him to her bedroom she took off his jacket and loosened his tie, while he reached for the rim of her top. As his fingertips brushed against the skin of her stomach she felt a wave of sparks rushing through her veins and her eyes flew shut for a few seconds.

Only a moment later they broke their kiss and she lifted her arms so he could pull her top over her head. After he had dropped it to the floor he drew her closer again and they shared another hungry kiss, before they continued to undress each other.

By now they had reached the bed and she sat down on it before she unbuckled his belt. Soon she had undone the button and zipper of his pants. As she pulled them down along with his boxers, Flack kissed her once more and Elle smiled against his lips.

Breaking the kiss Elle lay back. Flack bent down, kissing her passionately. After some time he started trailing kisses down the side of her throat, before he let his lips brush over her collar bones. Elle leaned her head back, her eyes closed, winding her hands into his hair.

As he started to kiss his way down to her belly she let her hands fall to either of her sides, and his smile widened as he heard her moan softly.

While painting her stomach with feather-like kisses he reached for the rim of her panties and straightening up he pulled them off before joining her on the bed.

_Tbc_

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_**A/N:**__ Thanks for reading, hope you like the story so far. Even though this story should already be finished for more than a year so I can continue with the sequel I have no idea when I'll be done with the next chapter, considering that I tend to get distracted by working on other updates/beginnings of new stories and am prone to writer's block, so please be patient... In the meantime you could do me a great favor and give me some feedback!_


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